When a motor vehicle becomes disabled due to an accident or mechanical failure it is often necessary to tow the disabled vehicle to a repair facility. Likewise, it is often necessary to tow vehicles of parking violators to vehicle detention lots. In all of these cases, dollies are sometimes used in order to prevent damage to the vehicles being towed.
In a towing operation, a pair of towing dollies are placed on opposite sides and under the vehicle to be towed. These dollies allow a vehicle to be safely towed where rotation of a vehicle's wheels is impractical or impossible due to possible vehicle damage or the like.
Towing dollies are heavy and cumbersome. These characteristics make the towing dollies difficult to load and unload onto or from a tow truck bed. The prior art teaches the use of a pair of storage brackets mounted onto either side of a conventional tow truck bed. In practice, a tow truck operator is required to climb on top of the truck bed, lift a towing dolly from its bracket, and then climb down out of the bed carrying the heavy dolly. After placing the dolly in position, the operator must then climb back into the bed to carry the remaining dolly down out of the bed.
The reverse of the before described operation is required in order to return the dollies to their storage brackets. Many tow truck operators have sustained back injuries and the like while handling dollies in this manner.
Those concerned with these and other problems recognize the need for a self-loading dolly mount apparatus capable of extendably securing a towing dolly over the truck bed of a conventional towing vehicle.